Overview

Resources and Consumption

Kansas has substantial fossil fuel reserves found in several basins, mostly in the south of the State. The Hugoton Gas Area, in southwestern Kansas, is the fifth largest natural gas field in the United States. Minor reserves of bituminous coal are found in the Cherokee basin in the southeastern corner of the State. In addition to fossil fuel resources, the State’s flat plains offer some of the highest wind power potential in the country, and its cornfields offer a major feedstock for ethanol production. The industrial sector leads Kansas’s energy consumption.

Petroleum

Kansas is one of the top 10 oil-producing States in the Nation and is a substantial oil-refining State, as well. Crude oil production, which typically represents 2 percent of total U.S. production, takes place throughout the State. A network of pipelines delivers crude oil to the State’s three refineries, which account for approximately 2 percent of the Nation’s crude oil refining capacity. Kansas’s total petroleum product consumption is commensurate with its population, even though use of liquefied petroleum gases (LPG) is disproportionately large While Kansas does not require that motor gasoline sold in the State be blended with ethanol, it does produce a substantial amount of ethanol at several production plants.

Natural Gas

Kansas produces substantial quantities of natural gas, and its infrastructure serves as a transportation hub for supplies moving throughout the country. Natural gas wells and pipelines are concentrated in the Anadarko Shelf in southwest Kansas. Kansas consumes about 85 percent of its natural gas output and transports most of the remainder to Nebraska and Missouri through several major transmission pipelines. Natural gas is also supplied to Kansas by pipelines entering the State from Oklahoma and Colorado. The Mid-Continent Center, located in Wichita, is a key natural gas supply hub that merges production from several States in the region before piping it east toward major consumption markets. Although Kansas’s conventional natural gas production has declined by almost a quarter since 2001, the State holds untapped reserves of coalbed methane in its southeastern coal-producing region. Natural gas production from this unconventional resource is rapidly expanding in the Cherokee Platform, where reserves have become economically recoverable. Kansas’s active industrial sector consumes over one-half of the natural gas used in the State. Nearly three-fourths of Kansas households use natural gas as their primary energy source for home heating.

Coal, Electricity, and Renewables

Coal-fired power plants supply about three-fourths of the Kansas electricity market, and the single-unit Wolf Creek nuclear plant in Burlington supplies almost all of the remainder. Kansas has two small coal mines in the east. Almost all of the coal used in Kansas’s power plants is shipped by railcar from other States, and over four-fifths of this coal comes from Wyoming. Kansas produces a substantial amount of wind energy, ranking among the top ten wind-producing States in the Nation. However, total renewable energy production contributes only minimally to Kansas’s electricity supply, providing less than 3 percent of the State’s total electricity production. Less than one-fifth of Kansas households rely on electricity as their primary energy source for home heating. In May 2009, Kansas adopted a renewable portfolio standard that requires utilities to acquire one-tenth of their energy from renewable sources by 2011 and one-fifth by 2020.